Ryan ChartrandI’ve yet to visit Mumbai, but I’ve heard it’s an inebriating, glistening city of street vendors and flashy cars, a colorful metropolis where saris and business suits rub shoulders and where Indians and foreigners alike come to have their fortunes told and made.
India is a fascinating modern success story just unfolding. Although far from perfect, it has made leaps and bounds in the past two decades to become the world’s largest democracy and one of the fastest growing economies. It is a model for any aspiring developing nation, unapologetically branding itself with its own eclectic brand of booming capitalism. Since 1991, India has embraced a free-market economic policy, privatizing business, focusing on deregulation and lower taxes and welcoming foreign investment and trade. Its financial and technology hubs, including Mumbai and Bangalore, produce engineers, doctors and scientists on-par with America’s best. It’s hardly ironic that Mumbai’s famous film industry, “Bollywood” takes its name from its American counterpart and churns out stories, however melodramatic, of love and self-made success by the thousands. Just as these films represent the dreams of so many within the nation, so does Mumbai sit as a beacon of South Asian optimism.
Yet sadly, it seems that it is precisely for that – for unabashedly working to assert itself alongside the world’s most admired cities – that Mumbai had its own Sept. 11 last week. In a series of masterfully coordinated terrorist attacks that left at least 175 people dead, including six Americans, the sparkling city was rocked to its core.
The message from the terrorists was clear. Just as they hoped to do with New York City, London and Madrid, they want to bring Mumbai to its knees; to cripple it by terrorizing its people, scaring off foreign businessmen, investors and tourists and decimating her landmarks.
The attacks were a sad and sobering reminder that there are still those in this world that can’t stand freedom or peace. They hate Mumbai for its optimism, understated success and nonchalant attitude towards its medley of cultures and religions.
“There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness,” wrote Suketu Mehta, a professor of journalism at New York University, in a New York Times column last week. “In the Bombay I grew up in, your religion was a personal eccentricity, like a hairstyle. In my school, you were denominated by which cricketer or Bollywood star you worshiped, not which prophet. In today’s Mumbai, things have changed. Hindu and Muslim demagogues want the mobs to come out again in the streets, and slaughter one another in the name of God. They want India and Pakistan to go to war. They want Indian Muslims to be expelled. They want India to get out of Kashmir. They want mosques torn down. They want temples bombed.”
Economist Gunjan Bagla, a financial advisor for Walt Disney in India, said the attacks would only further unite India and the United States. “We are the world’s largest democracies and the world’s largest entertainment industries. The horrible attacks in Mumbai underscore the fact that dastardly opponents of freedom, peace and multiculturalism hate both countries in the same manner,” Bagla told The Hollywood Reporter.
Indeed, last week’s attacks present a challenge not just to India, but to all civilized nations.
While these were not the first acts of terrorism that India has seen by far – over 300 people have died this year alone in bomb blasts around the country – these attacks are the worst, not just because of the death toll, but also for the level of sophistication that went into their planning.
If they truly believe in protecting their way of life, Americans and other Westerners should demand their governments stand by India in the face of terrorism. The attacks were not merely a result of cultural tensions between India and its neighbors; they were an assault on Western culture just as much as planes flying into the Twin Towers were.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has given almost $8 billion to Pakistan as aid intended to go towards fighting Islamic extremism, yet we’ve received next to nothing in return. Lashkar-i-Taiba, the Kashmiri guerilla group alleged to have carried out the Mumbai attacks, still operates training camps within Pakistan, the Washington Post reported last week. And Ajmal Amir Kasab, the single suspect caught, told interrogators that 10 of the estimated 15 men involved in those attacks were trained in Pakistan and specially picked for the Mumbai operation, according to the Times of India. So why is America so timid to take a stand and hold Pakistan accountable for what happens within its borders and with our billions?
India too will have a lot of finger pointing to do within its own government over the coming weeks. A score of top Indian officials have already stepped down amidst criticism of their handling of the attacks, and more resignations are likely to follow as the country’s people seek accountability from their government.
But ultimately, the battle against global terrorism is exactly that: a war between the civilized world and the ruthless extremists who wish to destroy it. As individuals, we cannot let terrorists succeed in their campaign by letting ourselves be terrorized. Mumbai would only be further punished and the terrorists would further succeed if the city were to see a decline in tourism or foreign investment. As Mehta said in her column, “The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.”
Yes, let’s do that, and let’s also take this as our last wake-up call. Mumbai will pick itself up just as New York City, London and Madrid did before it. That is, after all, the irony the terrorists don’t yet understand: whether made in Hollywood, Bollywood or real life, dreams don’t just die in a heartbeat.
Marlize van Romburgh is the Mustang Daily editor in chief and a journalism senior.